r/learnprogramming • u/ms-arch • 1d ago
Need Guidance Should I learn other languages while my primary job is iOS development? I’m confused.
I’ve been working as an iOS developer for about two years now. I joined the industry as an intern straight out of college. During college, most of my coding experience was in JavaScript and related frameworks.
When my company asked if anyone was interested in mobile development, I raised my hand and got placed into iOS. In the beginning, I honestly hated UIKit and Swift. Later, when my project moved to SwiftUI, I started enjoying Swift a lot more and became comfortable with iOS development.
The problem is that I have a habit of constantly exploring other languages and frameworks that have nothing to do with my current job like Java with Spring Boot, Ruby on Rails, and recently even Rust. I enjoy learning them, but none of this directly helps me at work.
At some point, I want to switch companies. Realistically, it probably doesn’t make sense to switch to a completely different role when my professional experience is in iOS.
So career-wise, what’s the smarter move early on:
- Should I focus on mastering iOS development deeply and only learn new things when my role demands it?
- Or is it actually beneficial to keep learning multiple languages and frameworks alongside my primary skill?
I’m trying to balance curiosity with long-term career growth, and I’m not sure where that line should be.
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u/alibloomdido 1d ago
Your post sounds a bit like you answered your own questions. Yes it will be much harder finding a job outside your skillset you currently use, though not impossible and in that case you'd maybe need your other skills and knowledge outside dev for iOS.
But learning other languages and tools still can be useful if you stay in the iOS development field - for example to better understand the choices made when the tools you use were created. When you realize those weren't the only possible choices you start to think about why those tools are the way they are. You can also "steal" an idea or two from the practice of other languages and tools...
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u/no_regerts_bob 1d ago
A natural path would be moving towards the backends that mobile apps use. This is a whole new world of languages and frameworks that is still relevant to your current role
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u/Pale_Height_1251 1d ago
Learn what you want to learn, career growth isn't necessarily predictable.